Think pretty thoughts. Pretty, pretty thoughts

Lt. Gen. William Odom (Ret.), former National Security Agency Director, on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

MATTHEWS: What could we do now? What would you do if you were president of the United States right now, General? If you were advising the president?

ODOM: I would tell him to invite the secretary of defense, direct secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs to come over, and I would tell them: I want within two to three weeks, some alternatives on what it would take to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible.

MATTHEWS: And that will give us a better future in that region than staying a couple of more years?

ODOM: Absolutely. And the second thing I would do—would try to arrange a meeting with key European countries under some kind of cover and privately I would tell them, “I made a strategic decision to get out. You‘re going to be worse off to this than we are. I admit that this was a strategic error, I‘m sorry. I know I don‘t have much credibility with you, but I‘m saying if you want to do something jointly with me, I‘m open to your suggestions.”

And I would come home and the third thing I would do is to push very hard through any channels I could, to get an opening to Iran. Iran is the one country that really could help us stabilize the region and particularly Iraq. [emph added]

If you have the time, read the transcript of the entire Odom-Matthews exchange. It's relatively bullshit-free.